Monitoring of power charging in vehicle

ABSTRACT

A energy meter unit for an electric vehicle contains energy measuring circuitry, a GPS unit, a CPU, and memory. The energy meter unit is capable of detecting the amount of energy charged at a specific location and storing that information for later uses, such as with a governmental incentive program.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present provisional application relates to an apparatus and methodfor tracking energy charging characteristics in an electric vehicle.

Many governmental bodies are introducing incentive programs as an effortto convince people to utilize alternative fuel cars such as electricvehicles. Among these incentive programs are programs which allow peopleto receive a discount or other credit for electricity they use to energytheir electric cars. Since electric cars can be charged at any location,and not only at designated “charging stations,” it is desirable todifferentiate between electric energy used for charging the vehicle andenergy used for other purposes. In addition to differentiating betweenenergy used for general purposes and energy used to charge the vehicle,it is desirable to track the energy used to charge the vehicle in orderto properly benefit from the incentive systems.

Without a device capable of differentiating between energy used forcharging an electric vehicle and energy used for other unrelatedpurposes, as well as tracking and reporting the energy used forcharging, electric car owners are restricted to charging their electriccar at designated charging stations in order to receive the benefits ofany incentive programs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a device which can track the amount ofenergy used to charge an electric vehicle in a specific location. Thedevice can then associate the amount of energy charged with the locationwhere the energy was charged, and report this information to a datacollection unit. The energy used to charge the vehicle may be billed ata discounted rate to the extent it can be verified that the energy wasused to charge the vehicle.

A method disclosed herein includes the steps of determining an amount ofenergy sent to the battery and determining an amount of energy stored bythe battery. An amount of energy lost is determined based upon thedetermination of the energy sent to the battery and the determination ofthe amount of energy stored by the battery. These and other features ofthe present invention can be best understood from the followingspecification and drawings, of which the following is a briefdescription.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a vehicle with an energy meter installed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example energy meter unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, an energy meter unit 14 for an electric vehicle 12can be placed inside the vehicle 12. The vehicle 12 includes one or morebatteries 16 for driving one or more motors 18 for driving the wheels ofthe vehicle 12. The energy meter unit 14 monitors energy received from acharging station or energy source 19 used to charge the battery 16. Theenergy source 19 could be a specialized charging station or householdelectrical outlet (or household 220 line). A specialized chargingstation may include an identification module 17, that communicates theidentification (e.g. location) of the energy supplier/charging stationto the energy meter unit 14. The energy meter unit 14 may connect to thevehicle 12 on-board diagnostics (OBD) port 15.

The energy meter unit 14 contains a GPS unit 38 which is capable ofcommunicating with GPS satellites 26, thereby determining the locationof the vehicle 12 at any given time. The energy meter unit 14 is alsocapable of communicating stored information with a data collection unit24 (e.g. server on a wide-area network, such as the internet), eitherthrough a user computer 28 with an internet connection 22, or throughanother connection to the data collection unit 24, such as a wirelessnetwork 20.

Referring to FIG. 2, an example embodiment of the energy meter unit 14is depicted. The energy meter unit 14 has a GPS module 38 (or otherlocation-determining hardware, such as cell-tower triangulation, oraccelerometers, speedometer, compass, and other dead-reckoning hardwareand software, etc), energy measuring circuitry 36, a central processingunit 30, and a memory 32. The example of FIG. 2 can also include aconnector 42 which can connect into a vehicle's data bus and a datatransmission module 40.

The data transmission module 40 can be a wireless transmission device(wi-fi, 802.11, gprs, cell phone transceiver, Bluetooth, or rftransmitter, satellite communication module, or the like), removablestorage media (usb, flash memory, hard drive, etc), or some other formof transferring data. It is additionally possible to include acommunication device 34 which is capable of communicating with anelectricity meter at an energy supply (e.g., a charging station). Thecommunication device 34 can obtain information regarding the specificenergy supplier and forward that information to the CPU 30. For example,if a user charged their car using a recharging station at 1234 MainStreet, the communication device 34 would connect to a compatible devicein the charging station, obtain the identifying information, and tellthe CPU 30 that a recharge of a certain amount occurred at 1234 MainStreet.

In the above described system, as soon as the battery 16 is connected toan energy source 19 for charging, the energy meter unit 14 measures andregisters a battery's energy level. The energy meter unit 14 thenmonitors the energy level of the battery 16 and an amount of energydelivered by the energy source 19 throughout the charging sessionresulting in data representing total energy used in the chargingsession, energy stored in the battery, or any other desired energystatistic.

The energy meter unit 14 can also connect to the vehicle data bus (e.g.ODB 15) to determine and record any identifying information such as thevehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle 12. Based on this,the energy meter unit 14 and an energy point can determine that theenergy supplied by the energy point was used to charge a battery 16 usedby the specific vehicle 12. This can be used by the server 24 to providethe energy source 19 owner with energy credit for charging vehicle 12,and/or can be used to provide the owner of the vehicle 12 a credit forthe amount of energy he bought from the energy source 19. The GPSreading can provide further evidence that vehicle 12 was charged duringcertain time at a specific location.

In operation, as soon as the battery 16 that is used to energy theelectrical vehicle 12 is connected to an energy source 19 for charging,the energy meter unit 14 measures and registers the battery's energylevel prior to charging. The energy meter unit 14 then monitors theenergy level of the battery 16 and the amount of energy delivered byenergy source 19 during the charging session (comparing the two allowsfor energy leakage measurement, and provides credit options to theserver 24 as to credit for what was delivered versus for what was storedin the battery 16). The energy meter unit 14 will also contact thevehicle ODB 15 to enquire and record the vehicle identification numberof the vehicle 12 that uses the battery 16 being charged. Based on thisone can determine that the energy supplied by the energy source 19 wasused to charge the battery 16 used by vehicle 12. This can be used byserver 24 to provide the energy source 19 owner with energy credit forcharging vehicle 12, and can also be used to provide the owner of thevehicle 12 a credit for the amount of energy he/she bought from theenergy source 19. The GPS reading can provide further evidence that thevehicle 12 with that VIN was charged during a certain time at the GPSlocation. This GPS location can be used to determine an address(geo-coding) and the address can be used to facilitate proper creditsgiven to energy source 19 located at the address. Furthermore, the GPSlocations (and hence the address) associated with the energy chargingsession can be used to validate a claim(s) by an energy source 19associated with the address that it truly supplied a certain amount ofenergy to vehicle 12.

If the energy source 19 has electronic identification 17 that it cantransmit to the energy meter unit 14, then this identificationinformation is also recorded by the energy meter unit 14 and transmittedto server 24. The GPS information can also be used to track vehicle 12driving usage, so as to enable road based energy consumptioncalculations and congestion/road class related incentives and credits onthe server 24.

The data collection unit 24 collects from the energy meter unit 14 viaone or more of the means described above (wirelessly or via a homecomputer). The data collection unit 24 allows the user to login tohis/her account to review energy charging events using the home usercomputer 28. The data collection unit 24 transmits relevant usage datato appropriate government and other credit agencies. Such agencies canalso access the data collection unit 24 to validate claims, and todevelop aggregated usage data across multiple users and/or with respectto spatial relevant usage data, for example, how much electrical energywas consumed in a certain geographical area.

In this application, “battery” refers to one or more batteries, since a“battery” often comprises several battery units combined together.“Electric vehicle” refers to any vehicle using electricity forlocomotion, whether a pure electric vehicle, hybrid, etc.

Although a preferred example has been disclosed, a worker of ordinaryskill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would comewithin the scope of this invention. For that reason, the followingclaims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of thisinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An energy meter associated with charging anelectric vehicle comprising; a location-determining system fordetermining a current location of the vehicle; an energy meter formeasuring a charge energy supplied to a battery on the vehicle,measuring energy stored by the battery and measuring energy lost duringsupply of charge energy; and a data transmission module capable oftransmitting the measure of energy and the location via a wirelesscommunication method.
 2. The energy meter of claim 1 additionallycomprising a processor associating the measure of charge energy suppliedto the battery with the location at which the battery was supplied withthe charge energy.
 3. The energy meter of claim 2 wherein said processoris capable of associating the measure of charge energy with the locationbased on information from a GPS receiver.
 4. The energy meter of claim 2wherein said energy meter is connected to a vehicle data bus therebyallowing the processor to obtain vehicle information and associate thevehicle information with the charge energy.
 5. The energy meter of claim4 wherein said data transmission module transmits the measure andlocation to a data collection server.
 6. The energy meter of claim 1wherein the energy meter receives energy supplier information regardinga source of the charge energy supplied to the battery.
 7. The energymeter of claim 1 wherein the energy meter measures energy lost duringthe supply of charge energy based upon the measurement of charge energysupplied to the battery and based upon the measurement of energy storedby the battery.
 8. A method for tracking electric energy charging in anelectric vehicle comprising the steps of: a) identifying a vehicle; b)determining an amount of energy supplied to a battery on the vehicle; c)determining an amount of energy stored by the battery during said supplyof energy to the battery; d) determining an amount of energy lost duringsupply of energy to the battery based upon energy supplied to thebattery and energy stored by the battery; and e) associating the amountof energy supplied with the vehicle.
 9. The method of claim 8additionally comprising the steps of connecting to a vehicle data bus toobtain identifying information about the vehicle.
 10. The method ofclaim 9 comprising the additional step of transmitting said amount ofenergy supplied and said identifying information to a data collectionserver.
 11. An energy meter for an electric vehicle comprising; avehicle data bus of the vehicle, the vehicle data bus presentingidentifying information; an energy meter for measuring a charge energysupplied to a battery on the vehicle, measuring energy stored by thebattery and measuring energy lost during supply of charge energy; and adata transmission module capable of transmitting the identifyinginformation and measure of energy charging the battery.
 12. The energymeter of claim 11 further including a processor associating theidentifying information and measure of energy charging the battery. 13.The energy meter of claim 11 wherein the data transmission module iscapable of transmitting the measure and the identifying information viaa wireless communication method.
 14. The energy meter of claim 13wherein said data transmission module transmits the measure and locationto a data collection server.
 15. The energy meter of claim 11 whereinthe energy meter receives energy supplier information at the powersource.
 16. The energy meter of claim 11 wherein the data transmissionmodule is capable of transmitting the measure and the identifyinginformation via a removable memory method.
 17. The energy meter of claim11 wherein the energy meter measures energy lost during the supply ofcharge energy based upon the measurement of charge energy supplied tothe battery and based upon the measurement of energy stored by thebattery.